We celebrated Easter with a lovely service at St Michael’s Church. Each class took a symbol associated with Easter and re-told the story of the crucifixion. Class 1 started the story with palm leaves as Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. This was followed by Class 2’s depiction of the last supper. Class 3 acted out the events around the crucifixion whilst Class 4 explained how Easter eggs symbolise the boulder that covered the tomb. The children all sang beautifully and it was a fitting way to bring the Spring term to a close.

On Friday 17th March, class 4 went to Colyton Grammar School to compete in a Tag Rugby Festival. Beer had 3 teams, 1 competitive and 2 friendly. The competitive team (Grizzly’s), made up of Jake, Evan, Harvey, Jennifer, Innes, Amelie, Josh, Roman, Christian and Adam, won the group stage winning every game. Blazers and Sharks both got off to a great start but Sharks lost their streak to Blazers who won every game! In the semi-final Beer Grizzly’s beat Seaton 7-1! Then the final was a close game but Beer came out on top winning 6-4, which means the Grizzly’s are going to the East Devon Finals in April – well done Grizzly’s and well done to all who participated! By Adam – Class 4.

Congratulations to all the runners who took part in Saturday’s Grizfest events. It was lovely to see so many children participating and enjoying the atmosphere that the weekend brings. I’d like to give a special mention to Harvey Green who did a cracking job competing in the 4k race. We have a few snaps from the day to share – please see the final page of the newsletter. I’d also like to congratulate Mrs Fitzgerald and Miss Squire as they successfully completed the cub run on Sunday as well as the parents that took part in Sunday’s races.

We are pleased that the interim reports have been well received. We also discussed the accompanying parent consultations, some parents felt they did not also need the consultation, whilst others still liked having them. Other feedback included a desire to come in to see the work their child(ren) have completed.

If you have any feedback but were unable to attend yesterday’s forum, please email the office as we use all feedback to help shape what we do in future. Thanks!

What a fantastic day we have all had! The children looked wonderful in the array of Julia Donaldson inspired costumes. A whole range of activities has taken place including looking at punctuation, descriptive words, rhyming words and patterns in books, creating pictures of the characters, discussing what we know about the characters we are dressed as, role-playing some of the parts, creating our own stories (that might appear in ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’), talking about ideas of sharing and friendship linked to the story ‘Sharing a Shell’ and designing a broom! If you get the chance when you are next in school, please take a look in the library which has been transformed into a Julia Donaldson woodland grotto featuring many of her best known characters!

Today we learnt about fossils with Luca and Amelie’s mum, Bridget and Lyme Regis Museum worker, Chris Andrews. He brought loads of ammonites and dinosaur fossils and tons of fascinating facts. He said ammonites are believed to be squid with shells on them and two air holes to breathe! He said the biggest fossil he had ever found was an ichthyosaur that was about 4m. The biggest ammonite ever found was in Germany and was as tall at the school roof and about 5 tables long. There were lots of fun fossils and facts, I had a wonderful time listening to Chris and Bridget. By Leo – class 4.

On Wednesday a selection of the year 5/6 netball team attended the East Devon Finals competition at The Kings School, Ottery. This was in a bid to get through to represent East Devon at the Devon Finals. Miss Studley and I are both extremely proud of the effort and determination demonstrated by all members of the team. Our first game was against Bassets Farm (who won the competition last year). Our defence was excellent, although Bassets kept pushing, but we fought back to gain possession of the ball. This unfortunately ended in a defeat, however the children kept their spirits high and against Uffcume produced some phenomenal netball play. It is a magical moment watching them demonstrate all the skills we have learnt from September with such ease. Although it was a close fight, with goal difference in mind, we made it out of the group stages and through to the quarter finals. Sadly this is where our journey ended with a 5-1 defeat against Plymtree. Although we only made it to the quarter finals, this is an amazing effort. We managed to maintain our ranking as one of the top 8 of 57 schools in East Devon!! Please congratulate the children – not only did they represent our school well but they were also awarded The Spirit of the Games Award meaning that Beer are the Fair Play winners 2017.

On Tuesday morning, Year 1 went to Axe Valley for a dance festival organised by Miss Oxley. During the morning, the children were split into groups for a carousel of activities included interpretations of different animals from the story ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’. They all had a lovely time and behaved beautifully too.

The nativity service was a very fitting end to the term and reminds us that Christmas is a time for family and a time to count the gifts we have that money can’t buy. It is important to remember that it is thanks to the whole school community that we are able to enjoy events such as the Christmas play and nativity service and we really do appreciate the partnership we have with parents and the support they give.